1. Field of the Invention
This patent relates to machines for creating an alignment of objects starting from a heap of loose objects.
In particular the patent concerns the alignment of cylindrical containers of circular, oval or polygonal base, such as plastic bottles, which are to be fed to printing machines, or to other types of machine such as filling machines, labelling machines or the like.
2. Description of the Background Art
Aligning machines are known comprising a rotating conical disc with its vertex facing upwards and rotating coaxially to an underlying adjacent flat circular disc the edge of which projects beyond the edge of the conical disc.
The two discs rotate at different speeds, so that the objects tend to position themselves on the edge of the lower disc with their axis horizontal, those objects lying on the outside resting laterally against a substantially cylindrical outer wall.
While in this configuration they are fed into a runway having a width just greater than the diameter of the object, and within which they lie aligned in a horizontal position, resting against the periphery of the flat lower disc.
Said runway is defined by the lower disc, the outer wall and an inner wall which accompanies said outer wall for a certain distance, but spaced therefrom.
The width of said runway has to be reset each time the object dimensions change, because if the runway is too narrow it prevents the objects entering it, whereas if it is too wide it enables the objects to lie not perfectly aligned, so preventing their advancement by jamming.
In known machines the outer wall of the runway is formed from rigid linear segments partly superposed on each other to create a polygonal wall portion, the average radius of curvature of which adapts to the dimensions of the objects.
The known solution suffers from drawbacks deriving firstly from the polygonal shape of the wall, which itself can hinder to a certain extent the free sliding of the objects.
Secondly, the mechanical complication of the known solution is immediately apparent, with particular reference to the means for adjusting the position of said wall.